So...I can't sleep. And instead of counting sheep I might as well post all the blog-ish thoughts that are going through my mind. For those of you who know me at all, it's fairly significant that I can't sleep. And, Ramona, I apologize that on the night when you're not home I'm wide awake in the middle of night, instead of my usual complete grogginess when you're in pain.
The reason I'm awake is likely one of two reasons. On the way to the hospital, Becki was with us (and is actually in the hospital with Ramona right now too) and I thought it would be wise to show her how dumb Ramona and I were while we were dating. So, we're taking a different route to the hospital to pick up our nachos from Carlos and Murphy's on the way. We stop at the parliament buildings on the way to do what we like to call "purple city". You would think I could come up with better dating ideas in this wonderful city of ours. Anyway, this involves first staring into the lights shining up at the parliament building for a minute or so...then just looking around at the city lights. As you might have guessed, the whole city looks purple.
As I'm noticing right now, the temporary thrill or purple lights seems to be overshadowed by this floating feeling I've had since.
The other reason I'm awake may be the absolutely amazing sermon I just got to listen to. It would be easiest to just post the link instead of explaining the sermon. Since I'm not sure how to do that, just go to the website http://www.ibethel.org/ . There are innumerable good sermons, but the one I just listened to was called Spoil! (All the youth that I was speaking with on Friday, this sermon would be the perfect addition to give you countless examples of how amazing God is).
We live in an amazing time, with such a wealth of information available. There is such revival going on world-wide. If you're ever discouraged with what's happening in your own life, there are countless stories online of what God is up to. The fact that you're reading this means you have access to it. For me, even doing something as simple as googling "sarcoma miracle prayer" gives me stories. The Bible is filled with miracles, but for myself, it's taken months of time just listening to other stories of what's happening in the world right now, to bring back my fascination for the Bible.
This Sunday morning, I heard a message including that Jesus' body was broken for our healing. Then Sunday evening I go to church and my friend who was ushering starts talking to me and telling me that the night before he was coughing blood and then he invited his friends over to pray and now he's in church ushering.
I still don't fully understand communion, but I knew that Jesus' blood was for the forgiveness of sins and his body was broken for....ya...maybe forgiveness too??? Jesus' body was broken for our healing, which includes physical healing. It's amazing to hear just a few accounts of the hundreds or thousands of healings that are happening here and around the world every week.

These last few weeks, were in some ways pretty tough. Ramona has had significantly less energy and the middle few days of this time away from the hospital were very pain filled days. Ramona had a transfusion a few days ago, which may have slightly improved her energy, but slight at best.
Interesting story from about a week ago that made for big encouragement in the tiredness.

I went to work one morning and, as often happens, there are new guys in my area (Teen Challenge guys rotate through there). So, I said my introductions to the guys I hadn't met and went to work. I was working outside by myself half an hour later when this new guy, Linden, comes to me with fresh recollection " Hey, I know you, you're the one from Beyond with the beautiful wife". Although I'm not used to the direct approach of my friend from the Bahamas, it sure is nice to meet another person who sees things the way I do. Anyway, I agree with him and he continues ".....the lady with the short haircut that looks like a model".
Anyway....eventually he got off the topic of how beautiful Ramona is and he began to talk about cancer. He began to tell me that two of his brothers had died of cancer and his dad had died of cancer. Cancer is a topic that we could relate to on some level.....but let me try to explain this correctly. This is the point of the conversation where I naturally was beginning to brace myself for what I knew was coming. I was expecting him to speak about our situation as if the inevitable doom was coming and he could empathize with me and all that kind of.....stuff.
Anyway, thank God, I was wrong. Like before, I can't remember his exact words but he told me that when saw Ramona he knew in his heart that she was going to live. This is awesome and very encouraging for us.
I wish we kept track of this from the beginning just how many times people have heard from God and it's been spoken over Ramona that she will live.

....I think I'm starting to get tired.

Ramona needs a miracle more than ever. Thanks so much for praying.
I really don't know how to sum up the presence of God...I'll just paste a little piece of an email I received.



Keep trusting in Jesus and hold onto His perfect promises over your lives! I understand it must be a time of great trial you are going through, but our precious Lord Jesus is there to comfort and sustain you through the very hardest of times...bringing hope and joy where there seems to be only despair and sadness. Jesus, we believe in Your power to heal and we declare Supernatural healing over Earl's wife today. Touch her with your mighty hand and breath life into her body! Nothing is impossible for You! There is Power in your precious Blood. May His Presence touch your very being today and fill you with peace as you trust in Him



ps. This email was written from a place where it's not unusual to see people raised from the dead

99,100. There we go, that's all the sheep, Good night,
Earl

There is an incredible amount of information that should be added to this blog. For now, thanks so much for being in this fight with us. Ramona is going in for chemo round number 19 tonight........

Round 18 is finished.
We got home today around 6:30 p.m.
Although Ramona has essentially been in bed ever since we got home, she is doing better than last round. The stomach pain is more bearable and her methadone dosage is lower, meaning that her mental state is better too.
Often after a time in the hospital, Ramona will have been on so much medication that although we've spent countless hours together, we're in very different worlds by the time we get home.
Our spiritual journey feels like it needs a minute by minute update, instead of every few days. In the last little while we've had some time to reflect on our last half year as we've either catching up with people we haven't seen in a while, or we're just thinking.
It's interesting on a week like this. The person two doors down the hall on 5B is Biship van Johnson. (His and Gloria's pictures can be found on powerformiracles.com). It makes for amazing conversations at we get to here so many stories of what God has done through some of these people.
I even bought Father Rolland (St. B priest) a coffee and got him to tell me stories of some of the awesome things happening in St. B.
I really have no idea how to organize my thoughts right now. I'm tempted to delete this whole thing and go to bed, but I really want to thank the multitudes of people that are sticking with us.
.....thanks,
Earl

We're hanging out at home and having fun. Ramona just fixed up some chai lattes, and in her own words she's "eating like a pig again". We just came back from watching the Bison's men's hockey team play their last game of the year.
Ramona's leg hurts....lots. It's red. It's hot. Um...and swollen. I guess that kind of bites.
Ramona's new blood seems to be working great (meaning our house got cleaned thoroughly).
Chemo starts Tuesday morning (Admission Monday night)
The chai lattes taste very good.
Remember to change your clocks tomorrow after church :)
The chai lattes are actually a little too strong.
Um...I guess I'll go boil some extra milk and quit writing.
Sleep well,
Earl

Ramona's leg (the one that just got radiated) was starting to look pretty normal. In fact, we were just noticing that the radiated leg was actually thinner than the other one.
Anyway, these last two days, the radiation spot started turning kinda purple-ish again. Spotted and purple-ish is rarely good news in any situation, so we went to cancer care to get things checked out. Ramona has also been having slight nosebleeds through out these last couple of days.
Anyway, the blood work came back and Ramona's platelets are 11 and her hemoglobin is 73.
I'm not exactly sure physically how to explain the energy, but Ramona made supper after the appointments. Then we went to cheaps to catch a movie......and we're back home eating popcorn....
So, tomorrow Ramona needs to be at Cancer Care to get the platelets topped up and friday go back to St. B for packed red cells.
Oh ya, the doctors are also adding antibiotics, because the leg appears infected again.
Have a good night,
Earl

...I simply won't take the time to try and explain everything that's happening in the emotional and spiritual realms right now......I don't really think I'm absorbing half of what's going on....our brains are much slower than our spirits....anyway....
Just a quick note on how Ramona is doing physically.
Ramona has been exhausted and feeling sick (dealing with stomach cramps and things like that) for the early part of this last week. Saturday afternoon was probably the first time during the week that she had a few minutes of energy to get off the couch and do some 'normal' house cleaning things
We're thankful Ramona's starting to feel a little better. By Thursday night we were beginning to be concerned that she had some kind of hospital infection (C. diff or one of those crazy things). As far as we know, she has nothing like that.
It was a pleasure to be able to attend church today...Ramona missed both services last Sunday and I missed one.
It's been almost frightening these last few weeks how much time, money, food and prayers are being invested in us....Thank you.
To be continued,
Earl